CETA is future foundation for economic relationship with UK: Freeland

Says new counterpart tells her government is ‘very committed’ to deal

Despite uncertainty created by the Brexit vote, the Canada-EU trade agreement (CETA) will be the foundation for Canada’s economic agreement with Great Britain moving forward, Trade Minister Chrystia Freeland told reporters Friday.

Freeland came out of a meeting with her new British counterpart, Dr. Liam Fox, assured the Theresa May government will continue to push for the ratification of the CETA, she said on a teleconference call.

“Much of my meeting today with Liam Fox, the newly minted British Secretary for International Trade, was about CETA. It was a very good conversation, and Dr. Fox — when I asked him if I could count on his and Britain’s continued support for CETA — he told me Britain would not just be supporting CETA, Britain would be pushing for CETA at the EU table,” she said.

“So the British government is very committed, and this is very good news to hear. We’re very pleased.”

Freeland, who was in Britain for the Farnborough International Airshow, also addressed the Canada-United Kingdom Chamber of Commerce and gave a lecture at London School of Economics and Political Science while in the country. She said the Brexit vote hasn’t changed the timeline established last February: a fall signing and an early 2017 ratification.

“Of course Britain and the EU have a lot of work to do sorting out the relationship between them, but on the timelines that we know about — CETA would come into force while Britain is still part of the EU, and that will be the foundation for our economic relationship with the UK going forward,” she said.

Freeland also addressed comments made by Slovakia’s minister of the economy, Peter Ziga, with respect to the provisional application of CETA.

On Thursday, as Slovakia takes over the the Council of the European Union’s rotating presidency, Ziga appeared before the EU Parliament’s international trade committee to present the Slovakian presidency’s trade program.

During his appearance, Ziga said the Council hadn’t decided what to do regarding provisional application, which refers to what parts of the agreement can come into force after it’s ratified by the EU Parliament and what requires the approval of member-state Parliaments.

Freeland and Canada’s chief negotiator have previously said they estimated 90 to 95 per cent of the agreement could come into force provisionally, mitigating the extent to which member states could delay bringing the agreement into force.

On Friday, Freeland described the provisional application decision as an internal matter, but stuck to her previous estimate.

“My officials and I are confident — and we’ve heard this from the Europeans too — that between 90 and 95 per cent of CETA will fall in the area of provisional application. That’s a technical judgement that we’ve made based on which areas of the deal technically fall under EU competency,” she said.